Booze news | Fake baijiu, underage drinking, Guizhou power

Six people in Shanghai were detained for allegedly faking baijiu brands Jiannanchun, Moutai, Wuliangye and Yanghe. The bottles, if real, would retail for rmb10 million, reports Shine, a Shanghai Daily publication:

[Police] found that parcels containing empty bottles and cases of baijiu, apparently from the famous brands, were often delivered to different addresses in the same residential complex, but the receiver of the parcels was the same person.

There’s a good chance his next abode will have bars on the doors. Full story here.

One World Baijiu Day theme is “beyond ganbei” given pressure drinking can turn people off baijiu. Not that is anything wrong with a few ganbeis–unless you are, say, 13 years old. One such youth ended up in the hospital after his “father force-fed him 100ml (3.4 ounces) of baijiu”, per this South China Morning Post report.

The incident happened at a family Lunar New Year banquet, where the father made the boy drink a large glass of baijiu to improve his alcohol tolerance, the boy’s mother was quoted as saying.

“At the beginning everyone thought it was not a problem,” she was quoted. “It was only at the end of the banquet that we realised the child would not wake up despite [our] shouting at him. His body was warm all over.”

Not sure Pop will be getting a gift on Father’s Day. Drink carefully, friends. And if you are 13 years old, maybe stick to soda.

Guizhou province showed the power of premium booze, notably leading brand Moutai, in 2018. Despite producing just 3.5 percent of the country’s baijiu, it sucked up 43 percent of the profits, according to an official cited in this Xinhua story.

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